BLECHNUM PUNCTULATUM 



185 



XLIV] 



is liable to follow on the broadening of the fertile blade, combined with a 

 condensation of its branching. The recognition of this forms a fitting prelude 

 to the study of those cognate developments which culminate in the soral 

 condition characteristic of the genus Phyllitis {Scolopendrium). 



Fig. 705. IVoodwardia Harlandii Hook, from Hong-Kong. Nat. size. Tlie continuous Blechnoid 

 coenosorus is extended into pairs of lateral sori facing one another. Disruption of these would give 

 a condition closely resembling IVoodwardia virginica. The type specimen represented by Hooker 

 {Fil. Exot. PI. vii) is more disrupted than this, showing the condition to be variable. (From a photo- 

 graph supplied from the Royal Gardens, Kew.) 



Blechnum PUNCTULATUM Sw. var. KrebSH Kunze 



The normal plant B. piinctidatuni Sw., native in South Africa and Java, 

 has the ordinary characters of a Blechnoid Fern of the Section Loinaria. It 

 is strongly dimorphic, with narrow fertile pinnae: but these occasionally 

 show interruptions of the fusion-sori: these accompany a widening of the 

 pinnae that points to a state intermediate between \Loinaria and %Eu- 

 Blechmtm. This feature seen occasionally in the normal species is specially 

 developed in a variety with broader fertile leaves ; discovered near Grahams- 

 town, Natal, by Krebs, it was described and figured by Kunze {Farnkrduter, 

 1847, p. 176, Taf. LXXIV). He gave it the name of Scolopeiidrium Krebsii 

 Kunze. Mettenius (^Fil. Hart. Lips. 1856, p. 6t, Taf. V, Fig. 7) adopted this 

 name. But the plant has since been ranked as a variety of B. punctiilatiim 



